For many musicians, a move to Berlin may mark a fertile new period of creativity, a spiritual awakening, a shift into the harsh industrial sounds of the city. Rest assured however, longtime Malkmus fans, that the Pavement frontman's uprooting for his sixth album with the Jicks is nothing but a triviality: little has been lost and little gained; his arch lyricism still ripe and melodies rousing with his inimitable, crooked guitar playing. Much like 2011's Mirror Traffic, Wig Out is more succinct and direct than the first few Jicks releases, but any slick habits he's picked up are punctured by his trademark gobbledygook lyrics. Although often sounding as if it was made by stoned, alt-rock hipster dads jamming in a garage, this album's finer moments come from its moments of slacker soul – J Smoov's Louis Armstrong-like romance, in particular, presents the modern-day Malkmus as a master of sophisticated whimsy.